Long Necked Women Of Burma

One of the minority tribes are the Kirin. Centuries ago their women were raped by the Mongol invades of Kubla Khan. To make their women unattractive, and thus to hopefully be ignored by the Monguls, the tribe devised the bizarre idea of stretching their necks.

Rather than individual rings, they use a coil expertly wrapped around the neck. Once the shoulders are pushed down and the neck stretched up enough, the coil is removed and replaced with a longer one.

Eventually this practice became common, and even viewed as attractive. Due to obvious medical problems, the practice is dying out. But we saw several, including some who appeared fairly young.

This woman was weaving a very complicated pattern, with essentially no loom. She simply tied the thread to a pole, sat on the floor, and started weaving.